Imagining an Aotearoa/New Zealand Without Prisons

It is hard to remember a time when New Zealand has not been draconian in its attitudes towards punishment. A national desire seemingly exists for a high level of incarceration whose effect, at the very least, is a systemic and needless waste of human potential. This desire sees a rising number of prisoners locked within a dehumanising and persistently expensive prison system. An effective response to this problem requires that the prevailing ‘populist’ understanding of punishment be abandoned. Ultimately, it will require imagining a society that is without prisons. Prior to that stage being reached, however, an interim strategy of ‘decarceration’ is needed, one which reduces the levels of imprisonment such that the abolition of prisons becomes feasible. This involves the reform of elements within New Zealand’s criminal justice system that proceed incarceration: the police, the courts, and sentencing in particular. Reforming these elements requires a serious engagement with the well-documented racial bias that characterises the operation of those fields.     &nbsp

Covering cops: Critical reporting of Indonesian police corruption

The following article analyses contemporary newspaper representations of police corruption in Indonesia’s premier English-language newspaper, The Jakarta Post. The article draws on primary data obtained from 114 articles published online between January and December 2013. The subsequent quantitative analysis found that The Jakarta Post reported on various forms of police corruption in both specific and general contexts with a majority of reports focusing on the investigation of corruption allegations where at least three people were involved. Information about suspects was also provided. Qualitative analysis indicated the following themes were frequently discussed: the extent of police corruption; causes of police corruption; fighting police corruption; the belief that police cannot be trusted to investigate internal police corruption; and that police corruption interferes with external investigations. Despite many obstacles involved in reporting police corruption, the authors argue that overall The Jakarta Post takes a critical view in its reporting of police corruption

Recognition, Sociability and Intolerance : A Study of Archibald Campbell (1691-1756)

We care deeply about what other people think of us, to such an extent that we may do seemingly irrational things in order to influence their opinion. This is not a new insight. The period ca.1650-1800 witnessed a concerted, if neglected debate about the implications of mankind’s desire for recognition, which bore directly on discussions of sociability and toleration. Here Thomas Hobbes’s writings acted as a powerful stimulus. Hobbes argued that even as the desire for recognition in mankind’s natural condition induces individuals to seek society, recognition-seeking generates a mistrust and violence that precludes its realization. Political authority, allied to the ecclesiastical, is required to constrain men to recognize their mutual obligations to one another: vertical toleration is necessary for horizontal tolerance between individuals to be realizable. The Church of Scotland minister and Professor at St Andrews, Archibald Campbell (1691-1756) offered a comprehensive challenge to Hobbes’s interpretation of the relationship between recognition and toleration. Campbell vindicated the desire for esteem from both a moral and a theological perspective: the pursuit of recognition induces us to accommodate our opinions and actions to those of others with whom we live. It gives rise to sociability and mutual fellowship. Yet Campbell accepted that the economy of esteem had been corrupted in ‘civilized’ societies, and implicated institutional religion in this development. Toleration, he concluded, could not hope to salve the wounds caused by the introduction of intolerance into human relations

A burthen too heavy for humane sufferance : Locke on reputation

Locke emphasized that a concern for reputation powerfully shaped the individual's conduct. Most scholarship suggests that Locke portrayed this phenomenon in negative terms. This article complicates this picture. A concern for reputation served a constructive role in Locke's theory of social development, which offered a powerful alternative explanation of the origins of moral consensus and political authority to Hobbes's. Locke nonetheless suggested that misunderstandings engendered in Christian commonwealths regarding the nature of political and religious authority had impacted negatively on the moral regulation of societies. The forces governing society, which once habituated individuals in beneficial ways, now led them astray

Phonics instruction and early reading: Professional views from the classroom

Debates about the most effective ways of teaching early readers have raged for more than half a century. In recent years, government in the UK and in some other English-speaking countries has promoted the teaching of “synthetic phonics” as the key to success in training young readers. Schools were offered government funding to buy approved materials and a new, statutory phonics screening 'check' for all children in Year 1 was introduced. This check was widely criticised, and the governmental instruction to use synthetic phonics as the core reading method met considerable opposition from the profession. To discern the reasons for these concerns, and their validity, the UK National Association for the Teaching of English conducted an on-line survey of teachers' views and practices in relation to the teaching and assessment of early reading. 445 respondents completed the survey. They were asked what weight they placed on phonics when assessing overall reading levels; whether the teaching of phonics impacted on the ways they taught reading and writing, and on the teaching of other subjects; and the impact (if any) that the increased focus on the teaching of phonics had had on comprehension, higher order reading skills, writing and spelling. Other questions included the provision of pupil support and the focus of any school inspection recently experienced. Finally - after giving their views on the purposes of the phonics check and on the way the results should be communicated to parents - respondents were offered an opportunity to communicate any further thoughts or concerns about these issues. A detailed account of these responses is followed by a discussion and evaluation of what they reveal about current practice in teaching early reading in the UK

Changing forest water yields in response to climate warming: results from long-term experimental watershed sites across North America

Climate warming is projected to affect forest water yields but the effects are expected to vary. We investigated how forest type and age affect water yield resilience to climate warming. To answer this question, we examined the variability in historical water yields at long-term experimental catchments across Canada and the United States over 5-year cool and warm periods. Using the theoretical framework of the Budyko curve, we calculated the effects of climate warming on the annual partitioning of precipitation (P) into evapotranspiration (ET) and water yield. Deviation (d) was defined as a catchment’s change in actual ET divided by P [AET/P; evaporative index (EI)] coincident with a shift from a cool to a warm period – a positive d indicates an upward shift in EI and smaller than expected water yields, and a negative d indicates a downward shift in EI and larger than expected water yields. Elasticity was defined as the ratio of inter annual variation in potential ET divided by P (PET/P; dryness index) to inter annual variation in the EI – high elasticity indicates low d despite large range in drying index (i.e., resilient water yields), low elasticity indicates high d despite small range in drying index (i.e., non-resilient water yields). Although the data needed to fully evaluate ecosystems based on these metrics are limited, we were able to identify some characteristics of response among forest types. Alpine sites showed the greatest sensitivity to climate warming with any warming leading to increased water yields. Conifer forests included catchments with lowest elasticity and stable to larger water yields. Deciduous forests included catchments with intermediate elasticity and stable to smaller water yields. Mixed coniferous/deciduous forests included catchments with highest elasticity and stable water yields. Forest type appeared to influence the resilience of catchment water yields to climate warming, with conifer and deciduous catchments more susceptible to climate warming than the more diverse mixed forest catchments

Changing forest water yields in response to climate warming: results from long-term experimental watershed sites across North America

Climate warming is projected to affect forest water yields but the effects are expected to vary. We investigated how forest type and age affect water yield resilience to climate warming. To answer this question, we examined the variability in historical water yields at long‐term experimental catchments across Canada and the United States over 5‐year cool and warm periods. Using the theoretical framework of the Budyko curve, we calculated the effects of climate warming on the annual partitioning of precipitation (P) into evapotranspiration (ET) and water yield. Deviation (d) was defined as a catchment's change in actual ET divided by P [AET/P; evaporative index (EI)] coincident with a shift from a cool to a warm period – a positive d indicates an upward shift in EI and smaller than expected water yields, and a negative d indicates a downward shift in EI and larger than expected water yields. Elasticity was defined as the ratio of interannual variation in potential ET divided by P (PET/P; dryness index) to interannual variation in the EI – high elasticity indicates low d despite large range in drying index (i.e., resilient water yields), low elasticity indicates high d despite small range in drying index (i.e., nonresilient water yields). Although the data needed to fully evaluate ecosystems based on these metrics are limited, we were able to identify some characteristics of response among forest types. Alpine sites showed the greatest sensitivity to climate warming with any warming leading to increased water yields. Conifer forests included catchments with lowest elasticity and stable to larger water yields. Deciduous forests included catchments with intermediate elasticity and stable to smaller water yields. Mixed coniferous/deciduous forests included catchments with highest elasticity and stable water yields. Forest type appeared to influence the resilience of catchment water yields to climate warming, with conifer and deciduous catchments more susceptible to climate warming than the more diverse mixed forest catchments